Before I get into this one, do you think it’s possible that the best guitar rock song of the 70’s is Bachmann Turner Overdrive’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet”? I think it contains a little sample of all the elements that made the era great, and present the case as follows: Not too long – […]
izakaya
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Sayori, Kayabacho (さより)
Sayori is a place that’s trying to hide away. It’s at the back side of Kayabacho, a double whammy when you consider that the whole area isn’t exactly a hotbed of activity. It’s on the third floor of a building, and advertises mainly with a small grey and black sign at waist level on the […]
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Karaku, Kyoto (華楽)
Nice place they’ve got here. I like this whole Kyoto thing more every year. Friday night, got up the courage to poke my head into one of the nearly unmarked kappou on Pontocho. With a number of the places there, it’s hard to tell what they do – just a name over the door. They […]
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Umi, Kayabacho (海)
Three things right off: 1. The delights of Kayabacho seem dubious and limited, but I keep finding places that I think are quite good. 2. This is one of them. 3. Kayabacho is under-served by Tabelog; even the good places have relatively few respondents, and the scores are unnaturally low. Ignore them. Right, so after […]
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Yuasa, Mita (湯浅,芝)
This post innaugurates an exciting new chapter in ‘places I’ve never been before but will have to explore’ – Mita. If you’re like me, you may well have thought of Mita as a boring subway stop consisting mainly of office towers and huge apartment blocks. If you were like me, you would have been wrong, […]
Manhyo, Monzen Nakacho (万俵)
Look, I’m just guessing on the title on this one, OK? It means something like ‘10,000 bags’ though, which is a funny little name when you think about it. This place is across the street from various other destinations (my cleaner, Mahoroba, Tsurugi, almost Petit Nice, Ogawa…I could go on about this stuff forever) but […]
Fukuden, Monzennakacho (ふく田)
As I write this, Fukuden is the #2 izakaya on Tabelog’s Tokyo rankings, which cover a metropolitan area stretching from Kamakura in the south to Ome in the west, Funabashi in the east to Kasukabe in the north. It’s also the 58th-ranked restaurant overall, which is not a bad feat considering that there are almost […]
Okada, Monzennakacho
Today’s interesting point is this: Japanese culture is different. Thank you for reading. No, I kid, I kid. But I’ve read a bunch of things recently talking about ‘recession food’ and how restaurants are opening or at least restyling in simpler, humbler ways. Japan has had a bit of this too, but with a unique […]
Hibiki, Marunouchi (響)
Monday nights out always get me kinda down, and it sure doesn’t help when they’re for work. Nevertheless, this turned out pretty well, more for work reasons than food reasons. Hibiki is best described as a chain izakaya gone upscale – it’s attractive and well-presented, but there’s something pretty soul-less about it that shows through […]
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Masuya, Tsukishima (ますや)
Yeah, this does indeed mean that I went back to roam around Tsukishima for a second night. I had seen Masuya on the previous evening and liked the seriously down-home look – brown country-style sliding door, extra supplies piled outside, lively sounds from within. And hey, what are Wednesdays for? Inside was indeed more homey […]